Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!daemon From: Stewart.Clamen@clamen.avalon.cs.cmu.edu Newsgroups: can.general Subject: Re: Canada: Minority rights Message-ID: <28119@watmath.waterloo.edu> Date: 2 Aug 89 20:32:33 GMT Sender: daemon@watmath.waterloo.edu Reply-To: Stewart.Clamen%clamen.avalon.cs.cmu.edu@watmath.waterloo.edu Distribution: can Lines: 81 From: Stewart M. Clamen In article <632@philmtl.philips.ca> tremblay@philmtl.philips.ca (Michel Tremblay) writes: Many individuals on the net are claiming that rights are denied to minorities in Que'bec. This is false. Some individuals in the Supreme Court as well. According to D'Iberville-Fortier, Federal Official Languages Commisionner, Keit Speicer, former Federal Official Language Commisionner, and of Brian Mulroney, Que'bec is the province where the minorities are best treated. I agree that the English minority in Quebec (you will have to excuse me, but I find the embedded single quotes (for accents) hard to read. I hear that people are working on extended ASCII mailers...) is better treated than the French communities outside Quebec and N.B., but what does that do to disprove the statement that rights are being denied to Quebeckers? In my opinion, rights of the French-speaking majority in Quebec are being denied as well. A French-speaker Quebecker can no more post a bilingual sign (be it in English, Chinese, or Swahili) than an English-speaking Quebecker. Also, those French speaker CANNOT send their children to English public schools, while the English speakers (and their descendents!) have a choice. (More on this in a future post.) A previous poster from the Toronto area noted that there are many bilingual signs in Toronto (Greek-English, Chinese-English, etc.). Such signs can no longer be legally displayed in Quebec. (I should make a point to visit Montreal's (shrinking) Chinatown next time I am home. It will probably be hard to find, since no Chinese characters will be able to be displayed outside.) Anglophones in Que'bec (less that 5%) had, have and will keep full control over their schools and Universities. Can we say the same about Francophones in other provinces?. Anywhere in Canada, minorities should be respected, not only in Que'bec. Certainly. That would be one of the first things on my list of what Canada means to me. (Minority rights, that is). I would like to take exception to your demographics, though; I thought it was closer to 10%, maybe a lot have left in the past few years. :-) Also, let us not forgot those classified as "Allophones" (another 10% ?), recent immigrants whose mother tongue is neither English or French, who must go to French-language schools. One note about immigrants in Que'bec is reqired here. Immigrants in Que'bec FREELY chose to join the English speaking or the French speaking community. Their choice is usually influenced by their cultural background. They may be able to choose to live anywhere in the province they wish, but as new Canadian immigrants in Quebec they cannot send their children to English-language schools (Americans included!). They have access French/English courses. Medical and social services are provided in both languages. Jobs are available for French and/or english speaking individuals. It is in fact only in Que'bec and in New-Brunswick that the immigrants can chose their linguistic community. Anywhere else in Canada, English is the de-facto imposed standard. Michel J. Tremblay, tremblay@ca.philips.philmtl or uunet!philmtl!tremblay La patience a ses limites... Calm down. I think communication is one of the things most lacking in the current national debate. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stewart M. Clamen School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 INTERNET: clamen@CS.CMU.EDU USENET: ...!uunet!"clamen@cs.cmu.edu"